"I'm not the kind of person who plays games," he said, sliding his thumbs to the front of her foot and stroking up the sides of her ankle. "I have these rules, see."
"Yeah, you've mentioned them once or twice." And she understood. She had a few of her own.
"Several apply here. I don't do relationships. I don't sleep with my employees."
"Yep. Uh huh. Got it." She really did. There was no need for him to keep reminding her of all the reasons nothing more was going to happen between them.
"So you'll appreciate how I'm between a rock and a hard place." He looked down at his lap. "Literally."
She followed his gaze. A telltale lump in his jeans gave her a little thrill.
"Because on the one hand, I have the rules."
"And on the other?" she prompted.
"Every second that I'm in your presence I'm thinking about how badly I want to fuck you again."
…
A slow smile blossomed on Cassie's face. She was such an incredible mix of innocent and wicked. It drove him apeshit.
"I see your dilemma," she said, pointing the toes of the foot he wasn't holding so they could just reach his cock, which, as usual in her presence, was at full attention. Case in point: one minute she'd be all guileless and sweet, laughing and pasta-swearing, the next she'd be pressing purple sparkly painted toes against his poor beleaguered dick. "However, I believe there's another interpretation. You just need to look at the situation creatively."
He closed his eyes and clenched his fists to keep from lunging at her. "How so?"
"First, I'm not your employee. I'm more like an independent contractor."
He smiled despite himself. "That's true. You're not on the payroll."
"You said it yourself. I have skills you value. Think of me as a very expensive hairstylist. Or electrician or something."
He couldn't help smiling. "And second?"
"Second is don't stop rubbing my feet." He unclenched his fists, grabbed the foot that was pressing on his dick-somehow, removing it didn't provide any relief-and began kneading it.
"Third … oh, that feels amazing." She let her head loll back. She looked so fucking good when she did that, lost herself in a sensation-and she lost herself so easily. She was good at pleasure, this one, and just watching her made him hot.
"Third," he prompted gruffly.
Lifting her head, she was suddenly all business. "Third. You don't do relationships. But we aren't in one."
"So what is this then?" He nodded at the space between them, her legs draped over him.
"This," she said emphatically, "is a no-strings-attached … " She trailed off.
"See, that's the problem. The next word is relationship."
"Entanglement," she pronounced.
"That doesn't sound any better," he said, though he asked himself why he was arguing with her. If he wasn't mistaken, here was a woman he was attracted to like no other making a case that they should keep sleeping together. Anyone with half a brain would worry about the details later.
"It does sound better," she insisted. "Because it can be untangled. And it should be-when we leave for Muskoka. You were right about that. We have to be 100 percent on our games with Wexler. No distractions. So let's get it out of our systems now. It's Sunday now. So that's four nights."
"Three," he countered. "I have a work thing on Tuesday night." And though he'd much rather spend Tuesday night in bed with Cassie, the goddamned Winter Enterprises Christmas party wasn't going to be much of a party without him.
"Three then."
He could feel himself starting to weaken, but he remained silent.
"Look, Jack, I get it. You don't have to worry about me. I'll take my money, you take Wexler's company, and we part ways after a job well done-no hard feelings." He must have looked skeptical because she pulled her feet off his lap. "Fifty grand-it's not that I don't appreciate it, and it will make life a lot easier in the short run. But it's not going to change anything, not fundamentally. I'll still have to work and inch my way through school. I don't do relationships either, see? They never feel like they're worth it, and I don't have the time."
"That's exactly it," he said. Maybe she did understand. "Relationships just get in the way of what's important."
"Which is what?" she asked, tilting her head in that cute way she did when she was trying to size up a situation.
"The company. I know it sounds cold, but it's how I feel. I've been utterly focused on the company from day one. It's required constant vigilance … and women, they just-" He cut himself off. There was no need to be cruel and finish the sentence with the truth, which was that women just got in the way, demanding time and affection and stuff he wasn't prepared to provide. It was probably his father's fault, but he wasn't interested in psychoanalyzing himself. He was who he was.
"They just get in the way," Cassie finished for him, suddenly looking very small curled into the corner of the sofa in the almost-dark office.
Before he could try to soften what he'd said, she continued. "Okay, so for you it's the company, for me it's school. I get it. We're on the same page. This isn't a relationship."
"Then why bother at all?" Because we can't keep our goddamned hands off each other seemed like the obvious answer, but he wanted to see what she would say.
"I'm not going to lie. I haven't had a ton of sex in my life. It just never seemed … compelling enough to go out of my way for." She laced and unlaced her fingers in her lap. "But now-and don't let your ego go bananas here-I get it. With you, I suddenly get it."
His ego went bananas. So did his dick.
Just being around her made him vibrate with lust. What the hell was he doing? And now she was suggesting that they spend three days doing just that with no strings attached. If he couldn't recognize when he'd won the fucking lottery, he didn't deserve to run the company he prized so highly.
Once he surrendered mentally, his body took over. Pushing himself up to his knees, he lunged at her, eyes on her mouth-so he didn't notice her outstretched palm until it made contact with his chest, halting his progress.
"Ah, ah, ah. We're not done negotiating."
"Yes we are." He closed his hand around her wrist and levered it down.
She scrambled to her feet. "Nope, there's one more condition."
"A moment ago you were trying to convince me we should do this. And now we're talking conditions? What did I miss?"
She grinned. "I want to be in charge."
What the hell? He cocked his head and issued a cool, "Excuse me?"
Her chin jutted out. "Exactly what I said. I want you to do what I say." But then she lost her nerve and quickly added, "Not forever-or not for our three nights, I mean. Just right now."
…
Cassie felt powerful. Foolish, but powerful. A pretty weird combination, but she was trying hard to hold on to the powerful part. It was just that now they had essentially decided to spend the next few days sleeping together, her mind had suddenly gone a little crazy with the possibilities. She wasn't deluding herself. Jack Winter was going to be the best sex she would have in her life-it was never going to get any better. So for the short time he was hers, she wanted him every which way. And though she'd enjoyed last night more than … well, pretty much anything ever, being in this office had planted an idea in her mind. A brazen idea. One that already had her restless and bothered. She tried to explain. "Last night you were sort of … in charge."
"I don't remember you objecting."
"Heck, no!" she exclaimed, a little louder than was probably dignified. "I just want my turn, is all. I want you to sit back and … let me have my way with you." She grinned at the clichéd phrase, but it was the best she could do.
"And why would you think I would object?"
"Because you're bossy."
That earned her a wry smile. "I like to think of it more as being focused."
"Whatever."
He held up his hands in a caricature of surrender. "I don't even know why we're having this conversation. Because I'm not arguing. And yet we're arguing. Only an idiot would take a pass on letting Cassie James have her way with him."
"Oh." She had girded herself to persuade him and was taken a little off guard by his easy capitulation.
"Let's go get a cab." He stood, his voice thick with desire.